Putting together wills and advance directives are among the things that often get pushed to the bottom of our lists. The day never really comes when you’re in the mood to think about your own demise. But plagued by her parents’ sudden tragic deaths years after the fact — as well as inspired by the sustainable end-of-life choices they made for themselves — Mallory McDuff decided to dive in deep. She spent a year exploring a wide variety of green burial practices that would align with her environmental values, and then writing about it in a book, Our Last Best Act. Eventually, she took what she learned and turned it into a class at her college, determined to get people thinking and talking about these options so they could feel as empowered as she later did. And guess what? It worked! Lucky for us (and you!), Mallory documented her thoughts about all of this in a Narratively essay called, “How to Turn a Human Body Into Soil, and Other Things I’ve Learned.” We chatted about the piece, her book, the class and more in a delightful conversation that I’ll be thinking about for a long time. Become a paid subscriber today and check out the whole conversation above!